Parents fly kites with their children at Wanjiang Park in Anqing city, East China's Anhui Province, on February 26, 2022. Photo: IC

The Zhuzhou Municipal Healthcare Security Administration in Central China's Hunan Province said that unmarried mothers in the city have successfully received a maternity allowance without providing a marriage or birth certificate on Monday, bolstering the legal rights and interests of every mother and child.

"Being able to apply for maternity allowance as normal as other mothers not only means an increase in economic subsidies for us single mothers, but also means that our women's reproductive rights and interests of us are further protected," an unmarried mother surnamed Qin from Zhuzhou, was overjoyed after receiving a birth allowance according to normal procedures on Monday. Before this, applying for maternity allowance in the city must provide a marriage certificate and birth certificate.

In order to promote the long-term balanced development of the population, and promoted the three-child policy and protecting workers' maternity allowances, the Zhuzhou Municipal Healthcare Security Administration clearly stipulated that maternity insurance treatment application materials no longer need marriage certificates and birth certificates, and required to implement from the date of the notice on July 12, to ensure that the city's insured people can enjoy preferential maternity policies in a timely manner.

According to staff member from the Zhuzhou Medical Insurance Center, at present, female workers only need to submit a maternity allowance application form, the medical certificate of birth and diagnostic certificate or the original discharge record to apply for a maternity allowance .

While for male workers to receive one-time maternity subsidies, they need to provide the original maternity hospital invoice while providing the above materials. 

For female employees who terminate their pregnancy and apply for maternity allowance, they only need to provide a maternity allowance application form and termination of pregnancy case data and a B-ultrasound examination sheet. 

Yuan Junwei, director of the Zhuzhou Medical Insurance Center, told the media outlets that the introduction of the new policy is not only conducive to supporting fertility across a wider group, reflecting the original intention of the fertility security system, but also to show the temperature of social civilization and the goodwill and warmth of building a child-bearing friendly society.

In addition to Zhuzhou, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Sichuan, Shaanxi and other places have also introduced relevant policies to remove restrictions on whether the registered object is married, so that unmarried mothers can also apply for a maternity allowance.